After a strong public backlash, the Tories had originally agreed to send Bill C-30 to a Parliamentary committee for review before Second Reading — a rare step that invited opposition input before the government itself had even signalled its support for the Bill. The government had even pre-emptively declared itself willing to consider what the opposition had to say — and the Tories weren’t particularly good at that even when, as a minority, they needed opposition support much more than they do now. But they might be giving it even more review — Saturday’s Globe and Mailreports that the Tories are taking their foot off the gas pedal. While sources in the government told the Globe that the Conservatives still plan to push ahead with C-30, the timing of their next move is unclear.

But while the Tories will still apparently press ahead, they have lost their appetite to do so now. Bill C-30 is not currently scheduled to go before the Public Safety Committee, nor are any debates planned. Given the unease of many Conservative MPs with their own government’s Bill, it is entirely possible that the Tories will be very patient indeed and let C-30 fade from the headlines before moving ahead again. This is all the more true now that a recently concluded poll has delivered a double-serving of bad news to the Conservatives.

The poll, conducted by Angus Reid on Thursday and Friday, asked over a thousand Canadians how they felt about the proposed online surveillance bill. Unsurprisingly, almost half of the respondents said they’d been following the issue in the news, and more than half of them did not want to see Bill C-30 passed into law. Given the extent of the public pushback on this bill, and the government’s swift reaction to it, this is no surprise to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government. It’s bad news, but not exactly a blow, in other words.

But what might give the government pause is which particular Canadians object in the strongest terms. That the people don’t like Bill C-30 is bad enough. But all the people the Tories need onside seem to really dislike it.

Specifically, Angus Reid found that while Bill C-30 isn’t exactly beloved anywhere in our fair dominion, the three regions that are most opposed to Bill C-30’s passage are Alberta (66% opposed), Ontario (58% opposed) and the Atlantic provinces (63% opposed). Those are huge numbers, and very significant for this government — if you had to name three areas of the country where the Tories must absolutely be competitive if they intend to continue winning majorities, Alberta, Ontario and the Atlantic provinces are three pretty good places to start. Indeed, under the current plan to add more ridings in fast growing areas of the country, the Tories could win majority governments with just those three regions (though whatever support they can get elsewhere is obviously something they’ll want).

It’s not surprising that areas of the country that are vital to the Conservative coalition are strong in their opposition to the Bill. It strikes many as being an unreasonable extension of the powers of the state without a strong sense among the population that such powers are necessary or even desirable — always a surefire way to get a small-c conservative’s back up. While law-and-order initiatives are typically crowd pleasers for the right, it’s easy to lose them when those measures begin to look like undue state interference in the lives and activities of law-abiding citizens.

Again, nothing surprising about that. But what is odd is how the same government that just voted to scrap the gun registry — with strong support from its base — because it was expensive and targeted at the law-abiding citizen, not just criminals, would think no one would object when it tried to create a new version of the registry with exactly the same flaws.

In the wake of a Grammy Awards ceremony that disappointed many, from Kanye West to the masses on Twitter lamenting the state of pop music, a historical perspective is key. Few are better poised to offer one than Andy Kim.